Day 81 - The Catalans say, "Ara és l'hora"!
/Ara es L'Hora
Today was Catalan day here in Barcelona. Nearly 2 million people wearing red and yellow took to the streets to take part in a rally to show their support for an independent Catalunya, "the next state in Europe". According to what we have heard and seen, the voting is expected to happen on November 9th, though we've also read that the Spanish government doesn't consider it a legal vote. It should be interesting to see how all of this develops, though (perhaps thankfully) we'll be out of Spain by then. Although we really had no business to be participating in the demonstration, we did see a lot of people in high spirits walking around, likely either to or from the rally. Most of their shirts read: "Ara es l'hora" which translates to "The time is now". Good luck Catalunya on your quest for independence!
In addition to people carrying flags while walking or riding motorcycles, there was also no shortage of flags hanging from apartments and stores. If you are interested in seeing pictures of the actual demonstration, check out this site. Though the page is in Catalan, the gallery is worth a look, as it does a good job showing how big of a deal yesterday was for the people here.
Barceloneta Beach: Part Dos
Though you may recall after our last trip to Barceloneta Beach we said we'd venture out to some other beaches next, we found ourselves heading back to the same beach again in the afternoon. The distance is convenient and we all like it, so why not. We encountered more crowds than we are used to in the subways and also at the beach. Regardless, we all had a great and relaxing afternoon. Maybe next time we'll check out one of the other beaches :)
KIOSK
For dinner, we headed to a very well reviewed burger restaurant called Kiosk. The area near the restaurant was very crowded, as the shuttle buses waiting to transport the throngs of demonstrators back out of the city were parked across the street. Thankfully there were enough policemen around to guide traffic, so it was not mayhem.
The restaurant was fairly packed, with the line almost out the door, but it moved quickly. You are supposed to fill your order out on a card while you wait and hand it over to the cashier in order to streamline the ordering process. There is an English menu posted on the wall (thankfully), but we did not see any English cards, so it was a bit of an exercise to fill out.
The seating is very cafeteria style, with a large table and many chairs in the middle, and side tables with bar stools. The overall atmosphere of the restaurant is great. People are friendly, and since you are sitting next to each other conversations are bound to happen :) We ended up chatting with a girl and her mom who were from Portugal.
The food was DELICIOUS! Please do yourself a favor and add KIOSK to your list of places to eat at in Barcelona if you are in the mood for a burger. It was definitely the best burger we have had since beginning our adventure! I'd say even better than Shake Shack! The kids devoured theirs without complaining about the sauce or anything else. Yum Yum... Deliciós!
